Shhh! The FBI's listening to your keystrokes

[admin]

http://news.com.com/2010-1028-5193750.html


Hmmmm, I don't like that much..

[sheptech]

Looks like they'll keep trying to get total visibility regardless of the medium (copper/voip/etc.) - the good news is that congress will keep putting it off as long as the medium provides a handy way of keeping in touch with their mistresses.

I still think I'm moving to Vonage from Verizon. As far as I'm concerned they can sniff every one of my telemarketing spam calls.

[Vixen]

Originally Posted by John Schlosser

As far as I'm concerned they can sniff every one of my telemarketing spam calls.

Speaking of telemarketing calls, I have to say that National Do Not Call list worked for about 3 months and now I am back to getting calls. Thank goodness for Privacy Director. It fields all calls that do not have a number that will show up on caller ID and then it has this nifty little feature where you can press a number for sales call reject. That is the best feature on my phone.

[dpyers]

A couple of years ago there were articles about the government approaching the major OS, spyware and anti-virus vendors to enable undetectable gov programs to run on pc's. Apparently, they all agreed to it. Probably already installed on your pc as a "critical update".

[Vixen]

That is not a very comforting thought.

[DigitalSkyline]

Who need privacy anyways? There's a reason prisons are overcrowded, and being privatized by profiteers. If it makes money and the government subisdizes it, your pretty much guarenteed the outcome. All you can do is watch your back and pray you don't piss off the wrong entity. Even freedom isnt free (or whatever that Tom Clancey jargon implies lol)

[smooshylab]

It's getting to be time to start encrypting more of your traffic. Call it paranoic fallout after reading Cryptonomicon, but I have definitely begun to feel less and less secure about regular communication via IM or email. It's good that they are developing more applications that implement encrypted communication for people like me.

[nelsonke]

I always chuckle at the way we react to law enforcement.

While we have been happily attending to our computers, the rest of America has been following with great interest the 911 Commission hearings in Washington. Families of 911 victims cheered commissioners who were tough on FBI witnesses.

Many clearly expected the FBI to have intercepted every terrorist phone call and email and to have known about 911 before it happened. What do people think "intercepts" are? They are called wiretaps.

We seem to want all the terrorists communications intercepted, and think it cool when they do it on a television spy show to the bad gusy. On the other hand, Americans are indignant over the suggestion the FBI would be able to wiretap our phones or computer communications. Pretty weird if you ask me.

Look, I don't want to be wire tapped. But on the other hand if they get a warrant, have at it. If they get legal permission from a judge, I don't want them blocked simply beause technology has changed.

Maybe someone can explain this apparent contradiction to me.

[Vixen]

I think it all comes down to privacy and that we do not want to live in a big brother like state where everything we do & say is watched and recorded, to potentially be used against us at a later date and time. I always thought we were innocent until proven guilty?? Nowhere does it say you are innocent until we sift through all of your conversations online and on the phone.

I am pretty sure that all of us have done or said something that could have been misinterpreted by someone that did not know the entire situation or conversation. For example, maybe they pick up on a conversation between 2 friends that were discussing their kills on a video game earlier (in person) and they pick up the conversation later online via email or IM. They only hear HALF of the conversation but do not make the connection it is about a game and ASSUME they are actually talking about killing people. It may sound far fetched but there are people who live, breathe and sleep their video games. So, then you have the FBI beating down someone's door, taking their computer and hauling them in for interriogation over a freakin game of Splinter Cell or something. I hate to say it, but the US "intelligence" has shown they are not always that intelligent.

We say we are free and we want to liberate other countries however listening in to conversations just because they "can" doesn't seem like freedom to me.

[nelsonke]

Vixen, of course you are right. We have the right (and responsibility) to have a healthy fear of "big brother", and we don't want all of our communications sifted and cataloqued. And the really scary thought for us refugees of other hosting services is that law enforcment and government people are generally a pretty average lot, some really good people, and some not so good ones. So we have to put in limits. And sometimes those limits will be overstepped.

My understanding is that permission for wiretaps must be based on some suspicion that illegal activity is going on and be approved by a Judge, as opposed to your suggestion of some cynical group simply surfing conversations. And I am not naieve. I have first hand knowledge of a 67 year old grandfather that is sitting in federal prison for 7 years becuase I believe of over zealous prosecution.

But I believe what the article that started this is addressing is the capability for wiretaps in the world of new technology when the FBI or other agency has reason to suspect that bad people like terrorists are communicating with each other. Terrorists have already shown a strong ability to use new technology to avoid traditional evesdropping. When they realized that their satellite and cell phones were being tapped, they switched to using the internet from cyber cafe's.

TV shows showing the CIA and other operations show amazing capabilities for evesdropping that do not exist. Kind of like your example of all computers on TV showing the word PASSWORD in big type. In a free society we have to balance our desire for privacy with our desire for safety. Its a tough thing to do.

I am just saying that new technology ought not to deprive those we look to for safety of the tools that have used for ever, just becuase the technology we use for communication has changed. I am glad they are pursuing these capabilities, and hope our elected representatives make sure they get them, -- at the same time they are suggesting that the FBI should have know 911 was coming.

[CelticRaven]

Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security.

[dpyers]

Originally Posted by CelticRaven

Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security.

Another quote attributed to Ben Franlin (which I doubt) is...

Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.

Liberty is a well armed sheep contesting the vote.